It was the hour before dawn. The sky, still bearing the color of deep indigo, was starting to turn green to the east. In the garden, the night still hid in the secluded corners and under the blooming branches. On the shore of the small artificial pond stood a gazebo, almost entirely hidden by the surrounding trees.

At this secluded place, in this early hour, despite all expectations, there was a person.

The short scrawny girl moved a bit on the bench and continued to stare at the smooth surface of the water. Suddenly something rustled in the bushes, making her jump like a startled animal.

“Tari, what are you doing here? You should be in bed.”

Caring hands wrapped the girl’s shoulders in a warm blanket. In the dim light, Tari saw the worried face of her older sister, who sat on the bench by her side.

“I just couldn’t sleep anymore, Kin, so I came for some fresh air.”

“You have been sitting here for two hours straight! Something might happen to you from that much fresh air. Don’t try to lie to me, Tari. I know that something’s bothering you.”

The girl could feel her sister’s prying gaze. Well, she needed to tell someone anyway, otherwise she would burst.

“You know that today is the final exam, right?” she started with an uncertain tone.

“Ye-es.”

“And do you know that if I fail…”

“You are not going to fail, Tari,” Kin quickly interrupted her. “Is that all it? You can’t sleep because you are thinking some nonsense?”

“It’s not nonsense!” The girl raised her voice but then meekly added: “If I fail, I’ll disappoint everyone.”

“You little fool!” Kin hugged the child tightly. “How could you disappoint us?”

Head leaning on her sister’s shoulder, Tari started talking so fast, as if fearing that her bubbling emotions would crush her if she stopped to take a breath.

““You are the Great Keeper’s granddaughter. You need to uphold your status!”, “You are lady Hariya’s granddaughter and you need to be up to par!”. Oh, Kin, everyone expects from me to be… perfect! And I’m trying, really! It’s just… I want to be like you. Mum and dad are so proud of your abilities. You were chosen to be the student of one of the last Supreme Masters, you are a great healer, and I… I am nothing! I should be good at air-manipulation since everyone in the family is an air-master. How can I tell mum and dad that I have a fear of heights? What kind of air-master would I be, when I get dizzy when I think about something higher than a chair? And if I fail the water-manipulation exam I will never become a master anyway.”

Tari felt tears running down her cheeks and briskly brushed them with her sleeve. Now that she had stopped talking, she felt even worse. Her sister would definitely see her as a weakling.

Just like she expected, her sister let go of her and stood up. Now she definitely would go away and leave her alone.

Tari was wrong.

Kin knelled in front of the bench so that her eyes were leveled with the child.

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“Never,” her tone was stern, “never ever do I want to hear you speak such nonsense. How could you even think that our love depends on some grades from the Academy, or on whether you become an air-master or not? How could you think that mum and dad would love you less if you are not, how did you put it, “perfect”? Throw away such thoughts! As for me, even if you turn out to be a Supreme Master, you’ll always remain my little sister whose ears I pulled for covering my books with jam.

Kin stretched her hand and passed her handkerchief to Tari.

“Dry your face and heads up. Let’s go back in and make come warm cocoa. Evidently, we won’t get much more sleep tonight."

Tari clutched the handkerchief and peered at her knees without moving.

“Kin?” she whispered a few seconds later and finally stood up.

“Yes?”

“You know that you are my favorite sister, right?”

“Well, if you say so,” chuckled the young woman. “Not that you have any other sisters but me.”

***

Karil was running panting through the floor. How could he oversleep!? He thought e would never be able to close his eyes after his little adventure last night, but the moment he dropped in his bed he was out. Now he was late! The day of the final exam had a bad start and in the boy’s chest lingered a feeling that the troubles are still planning when to rain down full force.

Taking the last turn, Karil made a valiant effort to stop and crashed full-speed into the closed door. Until he could comprehend why the stupid piece of wood was refusing to let him in, someone pressed the handle from the other side and the boy toppled into the classroom.

“Judging by the attitude towards the door I was certain it was you. You’re late, Karil!”

The angry voice of teacher Danila felt worse than the collision with the door a moment ago. Karil slowly looked around and felt his feet turning into jelly and his heart in a block of ice. The room was empty! Rows of benches stood empty and only the teacher’s lonely figure loomed at the door. The man’s otherwise benign face was twisted in the impossible combination of anger, disappointment, and compassion. On that face, Karil read his verdict.

“I missed it, didn’t I?” The boy was surprised there was any sound coming out of his dried throat. “The exam is over, right?”

“It isn’t.” Said the teacher and his features softened as he saw the relief written all over the child’s face.

“But how? Where is everyone then?”

“Follow me!” Danila ordered curtly. “I’ll explain on the way.”

Karil’s feet regained their ability to move and carried him, without much intervention from his side, trough the network of corridors, leading him to the sun-lit courtyard. The feet instinctively turned to the training grounds but the dry hand of the teacher pulled Karin in the opposite direction.

“No. The Teachers’ Council decided that the final exam should take place in a natural environment. The water-manipulation skills will be tasted on the Cleaved waterfall.”

“B-but how? It’s half a day away from here!”

“And that’s why I told you,” the teacher continued while starting to climb one of the staircase-streets towards the top of the hill, “that you should come early. And if I remember correctly, emphasized on the fact that all need to be punctual, Karil. Lady Hariya allowed the use of a portal that is going to be active for half an hour.”

Karil’s hard sprang wildly, but he knew that the climb had nothing to do with it. A portal! He never even dreamed of going through one of these things. The portals were reserved only for extremely important guests coming from afar. From the books in the Academy, the boy knew that these devices could bend space and time making it possible for hundreds of kilometers to be traveled in a blink. However...

“Teacher Danila, there is no exit-portal at the Cleaved waterfall. How are we going to move without an exit-portal?”

“There is one, several kilometers from there,” panted the man in response and looked nervously at his watch. “The others should have already arrived there. If we don’t hurry, the portal will close and you really will miss the exam.”

They arrived at some tall building and flew through the entrance. Hallways came and passed and finally, the two reached a small inner courtyard, almost completely filled by the portal. It was huge, and between its red pillars the air flimmered and twisted, blurring the lines of the objects on the other side. A sour-looking guard in blue uniform intercepted them.

“If you waste any more time it will close,” he grumbled.

Danila grabbed Karil’s hand and pulled him inside the air-vortex.